1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a handling system for use with a diagnostic device for biological specimens. The handling system includes an apparatus to load the diagnostic device, including a transport system and a carousel bearing several cassettes containing specimens. The invention is of particular advantage if a selection of specimens according to defined criteria is required for tedious and time-consuming inspections.
2. Background Information
For some time, efforts have been made to automatically load diagnostic devices as efficiently as possible, in particular diagnostic devices intended for the automatic evaluation of specimens. An apparatus to automatically load such a unit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,498. Here, only one supply cassette is loaded and unloaded, requiring frequent manual intervention in the process to change the supply containers. The diagnostic device in the solution disclosed therein is rigidly connected to the transport mechanism and the diagnostic area so that a simple adaptation of the handling system to another diagnostic device is essentially not possible. The long specimen advance distances and the relatively long time required to adjust the diagnostic device tend to result in considerable idle time in the process, during which no evaluation can take place. In German Patent No. 3 705 166, a process and apparatus for the automatic loading of a diagnostic device is disclosed, in which the use of a rotary table bearing cassettes tends to significantly reduce the frequency of cassette changes. Specimen handling is by means of the vacuum technique often used for the handling of wafers during the manufacture of circuits. The complexity of the apparatus is increased by the need for vacuum generation. At the same time, there tends to be a risk of vibration of the specimens and of dust settling on the specimens due to the turbulence of the air.
In the solution just described, the diagnostic device, diagnostic area and transport mechanism also form a solid unit. Thus, sorting of the specimens parallel to image analysis and adaptation of the handling system to another diagnostic device are essentially not possible.